Berkshire Postcodes — England (ENG)

Berkshire

A ceremonial and geographical county in southern England, Berkshire. The county is located directly to the west of London, in the valleys of the main Thames and its tributary, the Kennet. Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Wokingham are the six local governments that make up Berkshire.

The territory covered by the original county is larger and distinct in certain ways. Slough, which is now part of its own unitary authority, is not included. However, the district of Vale of White Horse and the portion of South Oxfordshire that sits west of the Thames are included, both of which are now located in the administrative county of Oxfordshire. The administrative functions of the former county of Berkshire were transferred to the six unitary authorities in 1998.

In the county's eastern portion, where Windsor Forest is located, you'll find infertile, frequently wooded ground underlain by the Thames River gravels and terraces. There are high chalk downs in the western portion of the county, with Inkpen Beacon rising to a height of 975 feet (297 meters). By way of the Goring Gap, the Thames winds its way through these downs. From London, trains can travel west to Oxford, Bristol, and the rest of the west coast of England via the Thames and Kennet valleys. The highway that links southern Wales with London passes through the county.

Many ancient communities in the Berkshire Downs were connected by ridgeways that ultimately led to Wiltshire and the famous Stonehenge. The Uffington White Horse, a carving in the chalk of White Horse Hill that dates back to the Iron Age, is the most important archaeological monument in the county. The monument's peak height is 130 feet and its length is 360 feet (110 meters) (40 metres). Finds of Iron Age settlements have been uncovered in the river basins and eastern Berkshire, and the Belgic site at Silchester, southwest of Reading, was transformed into a Roman thoroughfare. Alfred the Great, who was born in Wantage in 848, was a native of Berkshire and its county was contested between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. The first Windsor Castle was constructed after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when the Thames Valley's strategic importance was understood, and it went on to become the primary residence of the British royal family outside of London.

Geography

As a result of its size, the Thames drains the entire county. The topographic (and thus geological) landscape of Berkshire can be roughly divided in half between the areas east and west of Reading. To the north of Surrey and Hampshire lies the Bagshot Formation, while to the south of Earley and Windsor is a large, clayey, gravelly former watery plain or belt. To the south are parcels and belts of uneroded higher sands, flints, shingles, and lightly acid soil. Many pine, silver birch, and other trees that thrive in lightly acidic soil may be found in Swinley Forest (formerly known as Bracknell Forest), Windsor Great Park, Crowthorne, and Stratfield Saye Woods. Slough, Eton, Eton Wick, Wraysbury, Horton, and Datchet, together with the majority of East Berkshire, are located on the left (north) bank of the Thames, reflecting the clay belt to the east of the grassy and forested bends. Caversham, a northern Reading neighborhood, is situated on that bank but rises sharply into the Chiltern Hills, making it a prominent feature of the county.

The Loddon and its tributary, the Blackwater, drain portions of two counties to the south, and the Kennet drains a portion of highland Wiltshire to the west, both of which bypass Reading. While the Thames runs from the north-northwest before Goring Gap, the western portion of the county is just as wide and features the variable-width plain of the River Kennet, which rises to high chalk hills via lower clay slopes and rises. The highest point of South-East and Eastern England is located here, where the soil rises to a crest at the border with Hampshire. Walbury Hill, at 297 meters, is the highest point (974 ft) Located to the north of the Kennet River are the Berkshire Downs. The land here is mountainous, with smaller, forested valleys like the ones formed by the Lambourn and Pang rivers, both of which flow into the Thames. The upland districts, with their ample fields of barley, wheat, and other cereal crops, compete with Newmarket, Suffolk as a major horse racing training and breeding hub.